Member of the wedding

A white horse brings a touch of the traditional. (It also brings the groom.)

August 08, 2007|By Robert K. Elder, Tribune staff reporter

The groom shifted nervously in a sun-baked Burr Ridge hotel parking lot, but he still remembered to smile.

The bride, a hundred yards away with her family, waited expectantly, dressed in a traditional, red-and-white Indian Gujarati sari.

And Rocky, the 1,700-pound white draft horse that would bring them together, dutifully stood still as owner Jason Sierpien blackened and shined his hooves. In a last bit of grooming, Rocky lowered his head like a 2nd grader awaiting school pictures while Sierpien fussed with hair that fell between the horse's eyes.

Rocky, a 17-year-old former Milwaukee police horse, is one of Chicagoland's in-demand Percheron horses for baraats -- Indian wedding processions led by the groom's party. In past centuries in India, a baraat would often link two villages or two families, led by a white horse or elephant. Though in Hindi the word "baraat" simply means "procession," the practice is not exclusive to Hindus; Muslims and followers of other religions in India also use baraats in weddings.

"We both come from traditional families," said groom Amit Kachalia, 29, before the ceremony. Both he and his bride, Payal Gandhi, 23, wanted a baraat because, "One, it's a tradition. And two, it is kind of festive," he said.

Festive, in this case, was an understatement.

At 11 a.m., more than 100 brightly dressed revelers started clapping, dancing and singing, following a drummer and silver Dodge mini-van rigged up like a rolling boombox. It was loud enough, and pumped out enough vibration, to set off nearby car alarms.

Yet, with Kachalia in the saddle, Rocky dutifully moved forward and walked in a large, clockwise circle as the groom's party swarmed and danced around.

Baraat horses need to be "bomb proof," meaning fearless and calm, said Courtney Calabrese, 20, Rocky's caretaker at A Zoo to You, his home farm in Marengo, Ill.

Practical jokes and messing with the groom in general, especially by the bride's female relatives, are commonplace. Kachalia brought two pairs of shoes to the ceremony, because inevitably, one pair would be stolen while he rode Rocky. For most horses, experiencing such mischief with its rider would be nerve-racking.

"A horse's instinct is to run from" loud noises and gyrating crowds in particular, said Calabrese, also a baraat veteran. "But he's a good boy. I call him my rock star."

He's certainly pampered like one.

On the night before a wedding, Rocky gets his eyelashes and chin whiskers trimmed, a full-body scrub and "Cowboy Magic," a conditioning detangler, rubbed into his mane and tail. On average, he splits 100 baraats a year with his stablemate, Bullwinkle. In all, it can take five hours of prep and commuting time for the 45-minute ceremony.

"He has to walk in a circle once a week," Calabrese said. "It's not a hard life."

But demand has been growing, said owner Sierpien, enough that he is adding a third white horse, Claire, soon. By season's end, he predicts, they'll have 125-plus bookings. Sierpien -- a stocky, trim man who runs the business with his wife, Amy -- expanded the petting zoo business into baraat rentals seven years ago after a customer inquiry.

Despite the uptick in demand, baraats are relatively a niche business with only a handful of providers. Baraat horses typically run $275 to $400 per rental, depending on location.

"It's largely a word-of-mouth kind of thing," said Joy Kiefer, who runs the baraat concession for competitor Jaynesway Farms in Bartlett. "I find that I've been going to weddings of several generations of people -- their cousins, their brothers and sisters. It's a way of keeping their tradition alive here."

With a 12-year track record, Jaynesway has been in the baraat business longer, though it primarily uses one horse, a white appaloosa named Freckles, for its bookings.

"You need reliable livestock, that's a big thing," Kiefer said.

Sierpien agrees.

"You really can't do much," he said, in terms of training. "You just find the right horse and ease them into situations."

As Rocky neared the end of his parade route, Kachalia seemed to relax and began singing along with the crowd, as Rocky inched him closer to his future in-laws. Swept up in the moment, Kachalia jumped down from the saddle, joining his bride's wedding party for an impromptu dance.

"That's never happened before," Sierpien said, as the wedding party disappeared into the hotel. "But Rocky handled it really well. He's a professional."

After working more than 100 weddings with Rocky, Calabrese said she definitely wants to have a horse in her wedding, even though she's not Indian.

"They just party it up," she said. "It's definitely opened my mind to a different kind of wedding."